"Giacobbe said that what has intrigued him is that while Hatikvah cites an infringement of state laws,state regulations prohibit public schools,including the charter variety,from privately contracting independent publicists. A consultant,Julie Roginsky,writes and distributes the school’s news releases,he said.

“I’m a little befuddled about this,” Giacobbe said. “And they complain that we’re misusing taxpayer funds? We haven’t spent any taxpayer funds,other than to respond to dozens of OPRA requests so they can find out if we’ve violated any laws.”"

These anti choice, anti charter schools zealots did the same thing in South Brunswick when attacking the Chinese school. With taxpayer dollars the SB school district hired a law firm known to make sizable donations to the Democratic party - aka The NJEA controlled party!

Joysmove...read my post! I was referencing South Brunswick! Follow the money I am sure the East Brunswick lawyer and or consultant is either donor, family member of friend!

It New Jersey it doesn't matter what party your town council members are in, they all want to do the same things...take care of their political buddies, create opportunities for their personal gain and SCREW THE TAXPAYER.

Tugwalla....it isn't always about "anti-charter", "anti-choice", or a political party toeing the line. Some taxpayers just don't want to foot the bill for personal interest groups to get their hands on tax money so they can start a school that benefits their own particular group. I remember being a kid and I had friends who went to Hebrew, Greek, and other language cultural schools. When they went, their family paid for it themselves. What was wrong with that? If somebody wants their kid to learn Hebrew or Mandarin, why do the townspeople have to pay for it? If enough people want it, approach the school board and get enough supporters to make a presence and show that enough students would take a language like Hebrew or Mandarin and it would have been implemented in the public schools. Instead, now we have taxpayer money being spent so that kids who once had parents that paid for schools like Chinese, Greek, and Hebrew schools are now getting that education and the bill is paid from taxes instead of a personal bank account.

Nothing worse than a taxpayer funded yashiva

Quote from above: "Julia Rubin, a spokeswoman with the group said that despite their involvement with the organization, Save Our Schools NJ is not involved with Hatikvah International Academy Charter School, and does not take positions on individual schools."

It seems that Ms. Rubin may need to be updated on her own organization's activity. Let's look at the SOS website: http://www.njspotlight.com/stories/13/02/10/in-local-battles-against-charters-florence-township-joins-the-fray/

Here is a quote from that article:
"The grassroots advocacy group Save Our Schools New Jersey has become a formidable force in the debate statewide, galvanizing local groups in campaigns that helped beat back charters in the past two years in places like Highland Park, Princeton, and Cherry Hill."

THEY DON'T TAKE POSITIONS ON INDIVIDUAL SCHOOLS?

Julia,

I understand your posting. But the strong language in the article about SOS assisting local groups in "beating back charters over the past two years" is quite inconsistent with a blanket statement that appears to paint the SOS in a light that has absolutely nothing to do with individual charter school opposition.

Incidently, if the SOS did not want to be associated with taking a stand on any particular school, then why did Debra Cornvaca and Christine Rampolla state before the EB zoning board numerous times that they are members of the SOS among their other statements objecting to the school's application?

Seems to tie them directly back to the SOS organization; as they very proudly portrayed themselves to be both official representatives of the SOS and the thousands of other members across the state that apparently attend similar local meetings to voice their opinions.

More of a general question, and I mean no disrespect. But where is the SOS headquarters? Do they have a phone number? It seems reasonable that an entity with 10,500 members would have at least a postal address. Do they have regular member meetings and/or events to draw in volunteers?

SOS is concerned with school funding. Well what about school spending? What is the SOS's position on the skyrocketing costs to cover teachers salaries that don't teach anything? How about bloated adminstrations? Or the costs to maintain expensive buildings that are nowhere near capacity? What about the continual spending and increases in bonding and long term debt payments that are neverending. Where does the SOS side with these concerns?

Everywhere around NJ, it's a game of keeping up with the Jones' - public school style. Let's see who can build a better school on the taxpayers dime. So what if we are in debt! Just borrow the money, isn't that always the answer? More expensive schools correlate to higher test scores, no? In the end, taxes go up and the decision makers place blame elsewhere. Like perhaps on a charter school that is only partially funded by the budget.

What about the SOS opinions on actual learning? What about curriculum innovation? Or encouragement of students to learn and excel at something they love, rather than to simply pass a standardized test? What about their opinion on placing more emphasis on parental involvement in education?

There is too much emphasis on evaluating teacher performance. Why? Because if a child is not excelling, of course it must be the teacher's fault!

Well where is the voice to push for better ways to assess student learning? Maybe today's measurements of learning are useless. To literally "save our schools", we need to look on the inside and see what goes on - not simply complain that better funding formulas and more money will make all our problems go away!

For example, in a class of 25 students everyone is at a desk lined up in rows with a teacher at the front. In any given class, some students will be advanced, some will be slower learners, and the rest are in the middle. In this setting, the teacher can only move as fast as the curriculum permits. They cannot challenge the advanced students at a higher level, and still spend extra time with those that are behind. Everyone starts at chapter 1, and together, move at the same pace. This is leading to a dead end. The proper way to instruct is to allow the students to learn at their own pace and those that can do more are challenged with more difficult assignments while those that need extra help, can get it. Measure learning individually and not simply on a district wide basis. A test score is meaningless and little more than a political numbers only government solution to a vastly complex exercise.

Steve, you're welcome to join SOS...you just have to visit their website to sign up. Their policy agenda and issues are right there, as I'm sure you have already seen since you referenced the website. Perhaps you misread the words you quoted from their website...specifically the part that said SOS "galvanized local groups". I'm sure you understand that that's what a grassroots organization usually does...help to organize local groups to help them with a concern they have about their community. I'm sure you can also understand why they don't have formal offices either, so your question is puzzling.

As for your concerns about spending, are you referring to one particular school district, or is your problem with education spending in general? Have you attended a recent budget presentation for your town's school district? Because I have and I'm quite comfortable with the efforts to give the children the tools they need to compete in today's complex world with the understanding that they also have a serious responsibility to the taxpayers.
Mrs. Cornavaca and Mrs. Rampolla have made a choice to speak out on something they feel passionately about. Anyone is welcome to respectfully agree or disagree with them, but one should do so with the same level of respect they wish to be shown to their own views. Civil discourse is the only way to build consensus and make sure all sides are heard.

This may sound a little bit out there. But I for one feel that the reality of maintaining local school districts everywhere, all teaching the same state-mandated curriculum, should be ABANDONED all together.

Every school should cater to a local region and be focused on a particular curriculum. Then, let the seats be filled with those children who want to get a more in depth education in whatever it is the school is focused on teaching. For example, there could be bio-tech schools, performing arts schools, fine arts schools, music schools, dual language schools, vocational schools, science schools, journalism schools, home economics schools, anything for that matter. This is for a society living in a century of choice and these types of choices should be available everywhere.

This type of local region setup eliminates the notion of "we moved there for the schools". It solves affordable housing problems since you don't need to live in a rich town to go to those schools, and also creates healthy competition, which leads to better instruction and more innovation.

Let the parents and kids decide where they want to enroll. Why wait until college? The best years for learning are when you are young. The system today is outdated and only kept alive by the belief that change is too difficult, too expensive, takes too long, etc. This country is falling behind and must consider such large scale changes.

Me thinks Hatikvah leadership would prefer all the focus stay on the school's critics, than any attention be paid to the charter school and its operations.

YES! You are right. Let's look closer at the school's critics and the education system in general. For starters, I am not impressed. It sounds like the naysayers are mostly made up of closed minded people who love useless rhetoric. They just keep pushing for the continuance of the industrial factory assembly line approach to education. Thanks to that, our society has schools that are all serving up a fast food style curriculum, while starving minds and spirits, in an age where a quality custom meal is what's needed. Funding is to blame, right? So throw more money at the problem.

Education cannot be a linear one-size all approach. The township BOE has FAILED miserably in adapting to a changing society.

Children are born with natural talents and abilities and then we send them to the assembly line telling them college and a job is the reward. This kills individuality, independence, entrepreneurship, and open minded thinking. Look at the rising rates of ADHD. They should re-label that disorder "Boredom Disorder". Your kid doesn't like learning about the history of Antarctica? Give them some meds and force them to listen. And ban them from distractions like TV, games, art, and music! The assembly line must move on so the newest production models can pass the latest standardized test.

This cannot continue. Now, tell me how people who run around objecting to schools that offer innovation are really doing to "fix" the system?

Children start life as geniuses until schools make them average:
http://founder.limkokwing.net/blog/children_start_life_as_geniuses_until_schools_make_them_average/

This is another report: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3184540/

Do you now see why annual budget speeches and political posturing are really pointless in light of the real situation.

Teach children not to copy, that's cheating. They get a job and the company calls that collaboration! Teach children that everything has only one right answer. They get into the real world and can't make a simple decision. Don't allow children to question adults or their teachers. Then they can go into society and do as the boss says. Question the boss, get fired. Structure education like some cold industrial process and lose spontaneity.